Christine Banfield Herndon: Murder Plot, Au Pair’s Plea, and Life Sentence

Christine Banfield, a 37-year-old pediatric intensive care nurse, was stabbed to death inside her home near Herndon, Virginia, on February 24, 2023, in a killing staged to look like a home invasion. The Christine Banfield murder was planned by her husband, former IRS special agent Brendan Banfield, and the family’s live-in au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães, who together lured a stranger named Joseph Ryan to the house through a fake online profile and killed him alongside Christine. Brendan Banfield was convicted of aggravated murder and sentenced in June 2026 to life in prison without the possibility of parole; Magalhães received 10 years after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter.¹

Who Christine Banfield Was

Christine Banfield worked as a pediatric intensive care nurse and lived with her husband and their four-year-old daughter on the 13200 block of Stable Brook Way, near the Hattontown neighborhood in the Herndon area of Fairfax County. Her older sister, Danielle Hocker, told the court at sentencing that Christine was “kind, caring, reliable and selfless,” and recalled their childhood closeness: “When she was born, ‘I’ became ‘we.'”¹

The Plot Behind the Killing

Juliana Peres Magalhães, a Brazilian national, began working as the Banfields’ live-in au pair in October 2021, earning $200 a week to care for the couple’s daughter.² By August 2022 she and Brendan Banfield were having a sexual affair.³ Magalhães later testified that Banfield told her he wanted to marry her and have more children, but needed to “get rid of” Christine; he said he wanted to avoid divorce because he was afraid of losing custody of their daughter and losing money.⁴

In the fall of 2022, the two of them used Christine’s laptop to build a fake profile on FetLife, a fetish website, under the username “Annastasia9.” Posing as Christine, the profile solicited a stranger to come to the home for a violent sexual encounter involving a knife.⁵ Joseph Ryan, a 39-year-old man with no connection to the family, responded. In the days before the killings, Magalhães confirmed the details of the meetup with Ryan over the messaging app Telegram. In January 2023, Banfield bought a firearm and took Magalhães to a gun range for practice.³

What Happened on February 24, 2023

On the morning of the murders, Brendan Banfield slid Christine’s phone into a kitchen drawer so she could not call for help. He left the house and waited at a nearby McDonald’s while Magalhães sat outside in a car with the couple’s four-year-old daughter.³ When Ryan arrived, Magalhães phoned Banfield to signal that he was inside. Banfield drove back, and the two of them brought the child down to the basement before heading upstairs to the bedroom where Christine and Ryan were.⁴

Banfield announced himself as a police officer and shot Ryan in the head with his IRS service weapon. He then stabbed Christine multiple times with the knife Ryan had brought. When Magalhães saw Ryan was still moving, she fired a second shot that killed him.⁴ Magalhães then made a 911 call that she ended on Banfield’s instruction. A second 911 call brought police to a scene the couple intended to present as a home invasion, with Ryan cast as a violent intruder whom Banfield had killed while defending his wife.⁶

Officers arrived just after 8:00 a.m. and found Brendan Banfield in the primary bedroom, kneeling over Christine with his hand on her neck.⁷ Christine died of multiple stab wounds. Ryan was found dead on a dog bed in the corner of the bedroom with gunshot wounds to his head and chest. The couple’s daughter was unharmed in the basement.⁶

Joseph Ryan, the Second Victim

Joseph Ryan, 39, had no connection to the Banfields before being targeted through the fake profile.⁸ His mother, Deirdre Fisher, told the court at sentencing that her son “believed in fighting for the underdog.” He volunteered at homeless shelters, taught jiu-jitsu to children with autism, and adopted older dogs from shelters; he left behind a dog named Kitty. Fisher, who had Ryan at 16 and was his only parent, was the last person to speak with him by phone, and was not told of his death until two days afterward.⁹

How Investigators Unraveled the Staging

Police were not convinced by Banfield’s account. Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis later said he had suspected early on that “there was a lot more to what met the eye that morning.”¹⁰ Blood pattern analysis indicated Banfield had held the knife used in the bedroom. Prosecutors also pointed to a 13-minute gap between the first 911 call, placed from the au pair’s phone with a male voice moaning in the background, and the second call that actually summoned police.⁶ Banfield did not cooperate with the investigation.²

Life inside the house also contradicted the home-invasion story. After the killings, Magalhães moved her belongings into the primary bedroom closet, and photos of Brendan and Christine were replaced with pictures of Brendan and the au pair.³ Reports indicated the pair slept in the same bedroom where the killings had taken place.¹¹

In October 2023, eight months after the murders, police arrested Magalhães and charged her with second-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.¹² A Fairfax County grand jury indicted Brendan Banfield on September 16, 2024, on four counts of aggravated murder and one count of use of a firearm in a felony.¹³ Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano attributed the 19-month delay to “new information recently obtained by the detectives in this case.”¹⁴ Banfield was held without bail and, that December, was additionally indicted on felony child abuse, neglect, and cruelty charges.¹⁰

Juliana Peres Magalhães’s Plea and Sentence

On October 29, 2024, Magalhães pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter for the shooting death of Joseph Ryan; her original murder charge was reduced as part of the agreement.¹⁵ In exchange she agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and testify against Brendan Banfield, and the prosecution recommended a sentence of time served.

At Banfield’s trial in January 2026, Magalhães testified for three days, describing how she and Banfield built the fake online profiles, lured Ryan to the home, and carried out the killings. She said she came forward because she “felt guilt and shame” and “couldn’t do it anymore.”¹⁵ The defense attacked her credibility with 71 jailhouse letters she had written after her arrest to Banfield, his family, and others. In one letter to Banfield’s mother, she wrote: “I’d give my life for his, and I would never do anything to hurt him or against him… I’ll take the blame for the both of us.”¹⁶

On February 13, 2026, Judge Penney Azcarate rejected the prosecution’s recommendation of time served and sentenced Magalhães to the maximum 10 years, citing 10 aggravating factors, plus two years of suspended time and probation. After roughly two and a half years of credit for time served and potential good-behavior credits, she was expected to serve about four more years before being deported to Brazil.¹⁷

Brendan Banfield’s Trial and Life Sentence

Banfield’s three-week trial began on January 13, 2026, in Fairfax County Circuit Court before Chief Judge Azcarate. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.¹⁸ Prosecutors presented the killings as the culmination of a months-long conspiracy, built on Magalhães’s testimony, digital records showing the creation of the fake FetLife profile, the 911 timeline, blood pattern analysis, and surveillance footage placing Banfield at a McDonald’s near his home while Ryan was arriving.³ Banfield’s role as an IRS Criminal Investigation special agent featured in the case: he used his agency-issued firearm to shoot Ryan, and prosecutors argued his announcement of “police” was part of the staging. His acting supervisor, IRS Special Agent Thomas Patrick Smith, testified that Banfield’s claim of an “important work meeting” that morning was false.¹⁹

Banfield took the stand on January 29, 2026, and testified that he came home to find Ryan attacking Christine, drew his weapon, announced himself as police, and shot Ryan only after seeing a “forceful stab” at her.¹⁸ He admitted to cheating on Christine with the au pair and “several other women.”⁵ Defense attorney John Carroll argued the investigation suffered from “tunnel vision” and that Magalhães had been pressured into a false account.

On February 2, 2026, the jury convicted Banfield on all counts:²

Two counts of aggravated murder (one for committing two murders within three years, one for multiple victims in the same act)
One count of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony
One count of child endangerment

At sentencing on June 5, 2026, Christine’s sister Danielle Hocker called Banfield’s trial testimony “the most self-serving display of narcissism I have ever witnessed,” and told the court: “While justice was served, it does not lift the grief or make more space for it.”²⁰ Deirdre Fisher contrasted her son’s “selfless love” with Banfield’s “senseless evil,” saying: “Brendan Banfield shot his face, soiled his name and treated his life as disposable.”²¹

Judge Azcarate sentenced Banfield to life in prison without the possibility of parole, with additional consecutive terms for the firearms and child endangerment convictions.²² She said that in 18 years on the bench she had rarely seen defendants plan violent crimes with so little remorse, called the plot “evil,” and addressed Banfield directly: “The disregard of the life of your wife, someone you supposedly loved, is almost unfathomable.” Of the couple’s daughter, whom she called the “unspoken tragic victim,” Azcarate told him: “You did not just take her from her, you placed her in the middle of the horror you created.”²

Banfield maintained his innocence at sentencing and signaled an intent to appeal.²³ Carroll said he would not handle the appeal and advised Banfield to retain counsel with “fresh eyes.”²⁰

1
WSMV. Man Receives Sentence Double Murder Scheme Affair With Au Pair
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NBC Washington. Live Updates: Brendan Banfield Sentenced in Au Pair Affair Murder Case
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WJLA. Murderous Affair Sentencing Brendan Banfield
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ABC7 News. Brendan Banfield Sentencing: Man Gets Life in Prison
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NBC News. Brendan Banfield Double Murder Au Pair Sentence
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NBC News. Au Pair Murders: Brendan Banfield, Juliana Peres Magalhaes
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Fairfax County Police Department. Update: Husband Charged in Reston Double Murder
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NBC Washington. Twisted Fetish Sex Plot Left Wife and a Stranger Dead
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DC News Now. Brendan Banfield Sentencing in Au Pair Affair Double Murder Trial
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ABC11. Brendan Banfield Trial: Herndon, Virginia
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Court TV. Juliana Peres Magalhaes
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Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney. Peres Magalhaes Plea
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Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney. Banfield Indictment
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ABC News. Man, Au Pair Charged in Double Murder
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CNN. Au Pair Sentencing, Brendan Banfield
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NBC News. Au Pair’s Jailhouse Letters, Plea Deal Questioned
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NBC Washington. Live Updates: Juliana Peres Magalhaes Sentenced
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Court TV. VA v. Brendan Banfield: Au Pair Affair Murder Trial
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CNN. Brendan Banfield Murder Trial Testimony
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WJLA. Brendan Banfield Sentenced Life in Prison
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ABC News. Brendan Banfield Sentenced in Elaborate Double Murder Plot
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CNN. Brendan Banfield Murders Sentencing Virginia
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New York Post. Ex-IRS Agent Brendan Banfield Sentenced to Life in Prison